DEVELOPMENT IN TRANSPORTATION Transport is an important part of the nation’s economy. It has progressed at a rapid pace, and today there is a wide variety of modes of transport by land, water and air. Public transport still remains the primary mode of transport for most of the population. Despite improvements, several aspects of transport are still riddled with problems due to outdated infrastructure and a burgeoning population, and demand for transport infrastructure and services has been rising by around 10% a year.
Its quite often to think that how rapidly we had advanced from slow bullock carts to high speed Bullet trains. The different types of transport modes are: ? ? ? ? Road transport Air transport Water transport Rail Transport Road Transport: Road transport or road transportation is transport on roads of passengers or goods. The Makran Coastal Highway was an ancient road within Pakistan. Now it’s a major road leading to the city of Gwadar. The first methods of road transport were horses, oxen or even humans carrying goods over dirt tracks that often followed game trails.
As commerce increased, the tracks were often flattened or widened to accommodate the activities. Later, the travois, a frame used to drag loads, was developed. The wheel came still later, probably preceded by the use of logs as rollers. With the advent of the Roman Empire, there was a need for armies to be able to travel quickly from one area to another, and the roads that existed were often muddy, which greatly delayed the movement of large masses of troops. To resolve this issue, the Romans built great roads.
The Roman roads used deep roadbeds of crushed stone as an underlying layer to ensure that they kept dry, as the water would flow out from the crushed stone, instead of becoming mud in clay soils. During the Industrial Revolution, and because of the increased commerce that came with it, improved roadways became imperative. The problem was rain combined with dirt roads created commerce-miring mud. John Loudon McAdam (1756-1836) designed the first modern highways. He developed an inexpensive paving material of soil and stone aggregate (known as macadam), and he embanked roads a few feet higher than the surrounding terrain to cause water o drain away from the surface. At the same time, Thomas Telford, made substantial advances in the engineering of new roads and the construction of bridges, particularly, the London to Holyhead road. In the early 20th century tarmac and concrete paving were extended into the countryside. Transportation Transport on roads can be roughly grouped into two categories: ? Transportation of goods ? Transportation of people. In many countries licencing requirements and safety regulations ensure a separation of the two industries.
The nature of road transportation of goods depends, apart from the degree of development of the local infrastructure, on the distance the goods are transported by road, the weight and volume of the individual shipment and the type of goods transported. For short distances and light, small shipments a van or pickup truck may be used. For large shipments even if less than a full truckload (Less than truckload) a truck is more appropriate. (Also see Trucking and Hauling below). In some countries cargo is transported by road in horse-drawn carriages, donkey carts or other non-motorized mode (see animal-powered transport).
Delivery services (see Delivery (commerce)) are sometimes considered a separate category from cargo transport. In many places fast food is transported on roads by various types of vehicles. For inner city delivery of small packages and documents bike couriers are quite common. People (Passengers) are transported on roads either in individual cars or automobiles or in mass transit/public transport by bus / Coach (vehicle). Special modes of individual transport by road like rikshas or velotaxis may also be locally available. (Also see links below).
Trucking and hauling Trucking companies (AE) or haulers/hauliers (BE) accept cargo for road transportation. sheep in a B Double truck, Moree, New South Wales, Australia In Australia road trains replace rail transport for goods on routes throughout the center of the country. B-doubles and semi-trailers are used in urban areas because of their smaller size. Low-loader or flat-bed trailers are used to haul containers, see containerization, in intermodal transport. Truck drivers operate either independently working directly for the client or through freight carriers or shipping agents. Some big companies (e. g. rocery store chains) operate their own internal trucking operations. In the U. S. many truckers own their truck (rig), and are known as owneroperators. Some road transportation is done on regular routes or for only one consignee per run, while others transport goods from many different loading stations/shippers to various consignees. On some long runs only cargo for one lag of the route (to) is known when the cargo is loaded. Truckers may have to wait at the destination for the return cargo. To avoid accidents caused by fatigue, truckers have to keep to strict rules for drivetime and required rest periods.
Known in the U. S. as hours of service, and in the E. U. as drivers working hours. See e. g. “Hours of Work and Rest Periods (Road Transport) Convention, 1979”. Tachographs record the times the vehicle is in motion and stopped. Some companies use two drivers per truck to ensure uninterrupted transportation; with one driver resting or sleeping in a bunk in the back of the cab while the other is driving. For transport of hazardous materials (see dangerous goods) truckers need a licence, which usually requires them to pass an exam (e. g. in the EU).
They have to make sure they affix proper labels for the respective hazard(s) to their vehicle. Liquid goods are transported by road in tank trucks (AE) or tanker lorries (BE) (also road-tankers) or special tankcontainers for intermodal transport. For unpackaged goods and liquids weigh stations confirm weight after loading and before delivery. For transportation of live animals special requirements have to be met in many countries to prevent cruelty to animals (see animal rights). For fresh and frozen goods refrigerator trucks or reefer (container)s are used.
Truck drivers often need special licenses to drive, known in the U. S. as a commercial driver’s license. In the U. K. a Large Goods Vehicle license is required. Modern roads Today roadways are principally asphalt or concrete. Both are based on McAdam’s concept of stone aggregate in a binder, asphalt cement or Portland cement respectively. Asphalt is known as a flexible pavement, one which slowly will “flow” under the pounding of traffic. Concrete is a rigid pavement, which can take heavier loads but is more expensive and requires more carefully prepared subbase.
So, generally, major roads are concrete and local roads are asphalt. Often concrete roads are covered with a thin layer of asphalt to create a wearing surface. Modern pavements are designed for heavier vehicle loads and faster speeds, requiring thicker slabs and deeper subbase. Subbase is the layer or successive layers of stone, gravel and sand supporting the pavement. It is needed to spread out the slab load bearing on the underlying soil and to conduct away any water getting under the slabs.
Water will undermine a pavement over time, so much of pavement and pavement joint design are meant to minimize the amount of water getting and staying under the slabs. Shoulders are also an integral part of highway design. They are multipurpose; they can provide a margin of side clearance, a refuge for incapacitated vehicles, an emergency lane, and parking space. They also serve a design purpose, and that is to prevent water from percolating into the soil near the main pavement’s edge. Shoulder pavement is designed to a lower standard than the pavement in the traveled way and won’t hold up as ell to traffic. (Which is why driving on the shoulder is generally prohibited. ) Pavement technology is still evolving, albeit in not easily noticed increments. For instance, chemical additives in the pavement mix make the pavement more weather resistant, grooving and other surface treatments improve resistance to skidding and hydroplaning, and joint seals which were once tar are now made of low maintenance Road transport and the environment By subsector, road transport is the largest contributor to global warming (74% of total emissions from transport).
Rail transport Railroad transportation is the means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on. Track usually consists of steel rails running on sleepers/ties and ballast, on which the rolling stock, usually fitted with metal wheels, moves. However, other variations are also possible, such as rubber-wheeled rolling stock moving on concrete tracks, particularly for light rail and monorail systems.
Railroads are the safest land transportation systems when compared to other forms of transportation. Railroad transportation is capable of high levels of passenger and cargo utilization and energy efficiency, but is often less flexible and more capital-intensive than highway transportation is, when lower traffic levels are considered. Age of steam British steam locomotive-hauled train Russian 2TE10U diesel locomotive The development of the steam engine spurred ideas for mobile steam locomotives that could haul trains on tracks. The first was patented by James Watt in 1794.
In 1804, Richard Trevithick demonstrated the first locomotive-hauled train in Merthyr Tydfil, United Kingdom. In 1867, the first elevated railroad was built in New York. The symbolically-important first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869. Electrification and dieselisation Experiments with electrical railways were started by Robert Davidson in 1838. He completed a battery-powered carriage capable of 6. 4 km/h (4 mph). The Giant’s Causeway Tramway was the first to use electricity fed to the trains en-route, using a third rail, when it opened in 1883.
In 1904, the Spubeital Line in Austria opened with alternating current Luas in Dublin, Ireland Following the large-scale construction of motorways after the war, rail transport became less popular for commuting, and air transport started taking large market shares from long-haul passenger trains. Most tramways were either replaced by rapid transits or buses, while high transshipment costs caused short-haul freight trains to become uncompetitive. The 1973 oil crisis led to a change of mind set, and most tram systems that had survived into the 1970s remain today.
At the same time, containerization allowed freight trains to become more competitive and participate in intermodal freight transport. Air Transport: Aviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, esp. heavier-than-air aircraft. Many cultures have built devices that travel through the air, from the earliest projectiles such as stones and spears. the boomerang in Australia, the hot air Kongming lantern, and kites. There are early legends of human flight such as the story of Icarus, and later, somewhat more credible claims f shortdistance human flights appear, such as the winged flights of Abbas Ibn Firnas (810–887), Eilmer of Malmesbury (11th century), and the hot-air Passarola of Bartolomeu Lourenco de Gusmao (1685-1724). The modern age of aviation began with the first untethered human lighterthan-air flight on November 21, 1783, in a hot air balloon designed by the Montgolfier brothers. The practicality of balloons was limited because they could only travel downwind. It was immediately recognized that a steerable, or dirigible, balloon was required.
Jean-Pierre Blanchard flew the first human-powered dirigible in 1784 and crossed the English Channel in one in 1785. In 1799 Sir George Cayley set forth the concept of the modern airplane as a fixed-wing flying machine with separate systems for lift, propulsion, and control. [4][5] Early dirigible developments included machine-powered propulsion (Henri Giffard, 1852), rigid frames (David Schwarz, 1896), and improved speed and maneuverability (Alberto Santos-Dumont, 1901) First flight by the Wright Brothers, December 17, 1903Air Station. Hindenburg at Lakehurst
While there are many competing claims for the earliest powered, heavierthan-air flight, the most widely-accepted date is December 17, 1903 by the Wright brothers, who had solved the age old problem of controlling a craft in flight. The widespread adoption of ailerons made aircraft much easier to manage, and only a decade later, at the start of World War I, heavier-than-air powered aircraft had become practical for reconnaissance, artillery spotting, and even attacks against ground positions. Aircraft began to transport people and cargo as designs grew larger and more reliable.
In contrast to small non-rigid blimps, giant rigid airships became the first aircraft to transport passengers and cargo over great distances. The best known aircraft of this type were manufactured by the German Zeppelin company. The most successful Zeppelin was the Graf Zeppelin. It flew over one million miles, including an around-the-world flight in August 1929. However, the dominance of the Zeppelins over the airplanes of the that period, which had a range of only a few hundred miles, was diminishing as airplane design advanced. The “Golden Age” of the airships ended on May 6, 1937 when the Hindenburg caught fire killing 36 people.
Although there have been periodic initiatives to revive their use, airships have seen only niche application since that time. Great progress was made in the field of aviation during the 1920s and 1930s, such as Charles Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight in 1927, and Charles Kingsford Smith’s transpacific flight the following year. One of the most successful designs of this period was the Douglas DC-3 which became the first airliner that was profitable carrying passengers exclusively, starting the modern era of passenger airline service.
By the beginning of World War II, many towns and cities had built airports, and there were numerous qualified pilots available. The war brought many innovations to aviation, including the first jet aircraft and the first liquid-fueled rockets. NASA’s Helios researches solar powered flight. After WW II, especially in North America, there was a boom in general aviation, both private and commercial, as thousands of pilots were released from military service and many inexpensive war-surplus transport and training aircraft became available.
Manufacturers such as Cessna, Piper, and Beechcraft expanded production to provide light aircraft for the new middle class market. By the 1950s, the development of civil jets grew, beginning with the de Havilland Comet, though the first widely-used passenger jet was the Boeing 707, because it was much more economical than other planes at the time. At the same time, turboprop propulsion began to appear for smaller commuter planes, making it possible to serve small-volume routes in a much wider range of weather conditions.
Since the 1960s, composite airframes and quieter, more efficient engines have become available, and the Concorde provided supersonic passenger service for a time, but the most important lasting innovations have taken place in instrumentation and control. The arrival of solid-state electronics, the Global Positioning System, satellite communications, and increasingly small and powerful computers and LED displays, have dramatically changed the cockpits of airliners and, increasingly, of smaller aircraft as well. Pilots can navigate much more accurately and view terrain, obstructions, and other nearby aircraft on a ap or through synthetic vision, even at night or in low visibility. On June 21, 2004, SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded aircraft to make a spaceflight, opening the possibility of an aviation market capable of leaving the Earth’s atmosphere. Meanwhile, flying prototypes of aircraft powered by alternative fuels, such as ethanol, electricity, and even solar energy, are becoming more common and may soon enter the mainstream, at least for light aircraft. Civil aviation Civil aviation includes all non-military flying, both general aviation and scheduled air transport.
Northwest Airlines Airbus A330-300 Boeing, Airbus, and Tupolev concentrate on wide-body and narrow-body jet airliners, while Bombardier and Embraer concentrate on regional airliners. Large networks of specialized parts suppliers from around the world support these manufacturers, who sometimes provide only the initial design and final assembly in their own plants. The Chinese ACAC consortium will also soon enter the civil transport market with its ACAC ARJ21 regional jet. [6] Until the 1970s, most major airlines were flag carriers, sponsored by their governments and heavily protected from competition.
Since then, open skies agreements have resulted in increased competition and choice for consumers, coupled with falling prices for airlines. The combination of high fuel prices, low fares, high salaries, and crises such as the September 11, 2001 attacks and the SARS epidemic have driven many older airlines to government-bailouts, bankruptcy or mergers. At the same time, low-cost carriers such as Ryanair, Southwest and Westjet have flourished. General aviation 1947 Cessna 120 A weight-shift ultralight, aircraft
General aviation includes all non-scheduled civil flying, both private and commercial. General aviation may include business flights, air charter, private aviation, flight training, ballooning, parachuting, gliding, hang gliding, aerial photography, foot-launched powered hang gliders, air ambulance, crop dusting, charter flights, traffic reporting, police air patrols and forest fire fighting. Each country regulates aviation differently, but general aviation usually falls under different regulations depending on whether it is private or commercial and on the type of equipment involved.
Many small aircraft manufacturers, including Cessna, Piper, Diamond, Mooney, Cirrus Design, Raytheon and others serve the general aviation market, with a focus on private aviation and flight training. The most important recent developments for small aircraft (which form the bulk of the GA fleet) have been the introduction of advanced avionics (including GPS) that were formerly found only in large airliners, and the introduction of composite materials to make small aircraft lighter and faster.
Ultralight and homebuilt aircraft have also become increasingly popular for recreational use, since in most countries that allow private aviation, they are much less expensive and less heavily regulated than certified aircraft. Military aviation Simple balloons were used as surveillance aircraft as early as the 18th century. Over the years, military aircraft have been built to meet ever increasing capability requirements. Manufacturers of military aircraft compete for contracts to supply their government’s arsenal.
Aircraft are selected based on factors like cost, performance, and the speed of production. The Lockheed SR-71 remains unsurpassed in many areas of performance. Environmental impact Like all activities involving combustion, operating powered aircraft (from airliners to hot air balloons) releases greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), soot, and other pollutants into the atmosphere. Water & Sea Transport: Ship transport is watercraft carrying people (passengers) or goods (cargo). Sea transport has been the largest carrier of freight throughout recorded history.
Although the importance of sea travel for passengers has decreased due to aviation, it is effective for short trips and pleasure cruises. Transport by water is cheaper than transport by air. Ship transport can be over any distance by boat, ship, sailboat or barge, over oceans and lakes, through canals or along rivers. Shipping may be for commerce, recreation or the military. Virtually any material that can be moved, can be moved by water. Water transport becomes impractical when material delivery is highly timecritical. “General cargo” is goods packaged in boxes, cases, pallets, and barrels.
Containerization revolutionized ship transport in the 1960s. When a cargo is carried in more than one mode, it is intermodal or co-modal. Merchant shipping A nation’s shipping fleet (merchant navy, merchant marine, merchant fleet) is the ships operated by civilian crews to transport passengers or cargo. Professionals are merchant seaman, merchant sailor, and merchant mariner, or simply seaman, sailor, or mariner. The terms “seaman” or “sailor” may refer to a member of a country’s navy.. Ships and watercraft Ships and other watercraft are used for ship transport.
Various types can be distinguished by propulsion, size or cargo type. Recreational or educational craft still use wind power, while some smaller craft use internal combustion engines to drive one or more propellers, or in the case of jet boats, an inboard water jet. In shallow draft areas, such as the Everglades, some craft, such as the hovercraft, are propelled by large pusher-prop fans. Most modern merchant ships can be placed in one of a few categories, such as: Bulk carriers, such as the Sabrina are cargo ships used to transport bulk cargo items such as ore or food staples (rice, grain, etc. and similar cargo. It can be recognized by the large box-like hatches on its deck, designed to slide outboard for loading. Container ships are cargo ships that carry their entire load in truck-size containers, in a technique called containerization.. Tankers are cargo ships for the transport of fluids, such as crude oil, petroleum products, liquefied petroleum gas, liquefied natural gas and chemicals, also vegetable oils, wine and other food – the tanker sector comprises one third of the world tonnage.
Reefer ships are cargo ships typically used to transport perishable commodities which require temperature-controlled transportation, mostly fruits, meat, fish, vegetables, dairy products and other foodstuffs. Roll-on/roll-off ships, such as the ChiCheemaun, are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo such as automobiles, trailers or railway carriages. Coastal trading vessels, also known as coasters, are shallow-hulled ships used for trade between locations on the same island or continent.
Their shallow hulls mean that they can get through reefs where sea-going ships usually cannot (seagoing ships have a very deep hull for supplies and trade etc. Cruise ships are passenger ships used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship’s amenities are considered an essential part of the experience. Cruising has become a major part of the tourism industry, with millions of passengers each year as of 2006. Cable layer is a deep-sea vessel designed and used to lay underwater cables for telecommunications, electricity, and such.
A large superstructure, and one or more spools that feed off the transom distinguish it. A tugboat is a boat used to manoeuvre, primarily by towing or pushing other vessels (see shipping) in harbours, over the open sea or through rivers and canals. They are also used to tow barges, disabled ships, or other equipment like towboats. A dredger (sometimes also called a dredge) is a ship used to excavate in shallow seas or fresh water areas with the purpose of gathering up bottom sediments and disposing of them at a different location.
